For 75 år siden i dag fløy England sitt første jetfly

The Gloster E.28/39 ‘Whittle Jet’ first flew 15th May 1941

 

This Sunday, 15th May 1941, marks the 75th anniversary of the very first British jet flight when the Gloster E.28/39 aircraft built in collaboration with Frank Whittle and his Power Jets team, resulted in a series of turbine engines being trialled over the following months.       The Gloster E.28/39 taking flight on 15th May 1941 Image courtesy of IWM.   The first -very secret- flight  lasted 17 minutes and took place at RAF Cranwell.   This was certainly the start of the ‘jet age’ and would launch a very fertile period for the British aviation industry as new aircraft were developed in rapid succession from a variety of independent aircraft manufacturers, all vying to make the best, and harness the increased power and speed this new propulsion system could offer.   FIND OUT MORE ON THE FLIGHTS HERE

 

 

Frank Whittle – father of the jet age. An extract from our archive   Frank Whittle was born in Coventry in 1907. His father owned a small engineering workshop that was to be the spark for interest in technical and mechanical things. Studious research in his local library resulted in a scholarship to a secondary school later to become Leamington College for Boys. It was here that his interest grew in aircraft and the RAF. His first application to join as an aircraft apprentice being rejected not once, but twice, due to his small physique and height at the time. Eventually, in 1923 at the age of 16, he was accepted by Cranwell to start his apprenticeship.   With outstanding qualities witnessed by his tutors, he was quickly awarded a cadetship at the RAF College to train as a Pilot Officer, where he wrote a thesis on ‘Future Developments in Aircraft Design’.   He proposed gas turbines (the result of generating hot expansive gases to drive a fan) could be used to turn propellers and suggested rocket propulsion might also be a way of powering aircraft in the future. At this time, aircraft designs were well behind the structural and aerodynamic shapes that would be needed for such speeds to be possible, but the idea to drive the known technology of propellers was seen as a real possibility worth further investigation.   By 1929, he had qualified as a Pilot Officer and went off to the Central Flying School to qualify as a flying instructor, still refining his thoughts and sketches.